During the 1970 academic year the students in AircraftDesign worked on the design of a vertical take off andlanding airliner. The aircraft is intended to be capableof carrying up to 118 passengers over stage lengths of500 n.miles. The maximum cruise speed is Mach 0.83 at analtitude of approximately 20,000 ft and the predicted takeoff weight is 125,000 lbs. Vertical take off is achievedby using 12 fan lift engines, each of 1.500 lb thrust,which are based on the Rolls Royce RB 202 design. The liftengines are housed in two large nacelles which are mountedon the high, sweptback wing. The installed thrust/weightratio of 1.4 makes allowance for hot and high operation,control requirements, and lift engine failure. An unusualfeature of the design is the location of the two propulsionengines on either of the vertical fins.Some indication was gained of the penalties associatedwith this type of aircraft, but the weighing of theseagainst the realisable advantages was outside the scope ofthe work.
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